Unique Rain Stall Team

Hello Smogon community as you can probs guess I am greener then grass to smogon and this will be my first RMT and im going to ask that you have some patience and bere thru with me. The aim of this team is to force switch outs and to trap uses while racking up lots of toxic damage while still keeping good momentum and lots of revenge kill sweeping opportunities for gyrados​

The Team:​

Politoed @ LeftoversTrait: DrizzleEVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Sp DefBold Nature (+Def, -Atk)- Whirlpool- Protect- Perish Song- Toxicthis is a new take on the standard defensive set in which ive replaced the scald with whirlpool. Why? Because it allows me to trap Pokémon and setup either toxic spikes on them or lets gyrados sweep them. This set has great synergy with my team as if politoed dies but manages to get up a perish song you can then use dugtrio to both kill the pokemon by protecting away and allow Doug to set up the ever needed stealth rocks.​

Dugtrio is a situational member of the team, when faced with opposeing weather pokemon such as tyranitar or ninetales he can usually OHKO them both in one turn. Outside of the weather dugtrio others use as a kamikaze rocks setup and as a trap killer for the ever present heatrans and volcaronas of the tier.dugtrio find his synergy with this team through his natural groun typing which provides and essential immunity to electric moves which would otherwise decimate this team, of which dugtrio can either dispatch of himself or be used to safely switch gyrados to deal with the pokemon.​

Tentacruel another essential member of this team for both endgame toxic stalling or spinning away those pesky entry hazards. Tentacruel Is an Essential Pokemon Being it either his amazing bulk or that fantastic ability tentacruel is a staple for this team in his ability to not also remove enemy hazards but for also being able to lay down his own toxic spikes while there setup switches out. Although tentacruels typing does add yet another layer of electric weakness his benefits far outway his fallings in his greatly needed supporting role and his walling capability. On a side note he holds black sludge so as to hurt any pokemon wanting to make him trick fodder. ​

Why oh why does he have Stun Spore over Sludge Bomb, simple Amoonguss isn’t some sweeper, Amoonguss is a wall. With a 4* resistence to grass type moves and a 2* resistence to electric moves and great bulk AND access to regenerator AND access to spore AND access to clear smog its no wonder why amoonguss is so essential to changing the momentum of a game in my favour (I know that was a terrible run on sentance). Amoonguss is all about switching in disableing a pokemon and allowing a safeish switch in and a –hopfully- sweep​

Cloyster my primary sweeper capable even without support takeing out an entire team of dragonites :P. Why would I give cloyster a Focus Sash simple because his spdef stat his pitiful and all to many times I have prepared for a sweep only to find an idiot with a sp atk gyrados ruin my poor cloysters fun, with focus sash he now has a gaurentee of getting at least 1 shell smash. When faced with the common dragon/flying pokemon or dragon/ground cloyster quickly finds his enemies grovelling at his almighty priority S.T.A.B ed ice shard bringing them down. Thirdly although Cloyster may have yet another weakness to electric type moves this insanity is justified by his focus sash and the fact that any S.T.A.B ed sp Atk that hits for at least neutral damage would useually OHKO him. Why does cloyster have Razor Shell over Rock Blast? Because in the rain it gains an additional 1.5* boost as well as stab which rock blast gets neither, it also has a habit of aquireing the 1.5*- def on the opposition which only makes sweeping that much easier. ​

And finally we have the centerpice of the team. This set utilizes the weakening that residual wear and tear from toxic and cloyster should have presented to allow Gyrados to sweep teams after a sacrifice to the pokkemon gods (late game).Gary is a boss he doesn’t give to flying/water F***s about his teams yet another weakness to Electric moves he just roles in and waterfalls them to death even your 5 year old neighbour will agree this guy is a badass mofo. Gyarados generaly shouldn’t use anything other then waterfall unless outside of the rain of other exceptional cicumstances.​

The Big Bad Threats​

although this team does have many picitorial pokemon ie dugtrio and amoonguss If one of these pokemon was to somehow die (which totally never happens) then everything will fall to poo.many dangerous threats include other weather teams especially sun as venasaur w a stat boost becomes a boss of his own rights. This team suffers immensely at the hands of scarfed keldeo as no pokemon can outspeed it on this team. It gets its anus licked by other cloyster whom have access to rock blast alternately. This team also gets harassed by rain dance teams ie kingdra who with an extra turn up its sleeve gets prity dangerous especially considering its no outstanding weaknesses and its 4* resistance to water moves ​

Thank you for reading this RMT if you have any questions especially suggestions then either inbox me or just post a comment. Please rate and friend me :P im looking forward to becoming an active member of the smogon community​

So, I would work around this Politoed of yours. With Whirlpool you can trap a lot of things that wouldn't be able to damage your sweepers at all; this said I would change Gyarados set. This said, a Substitute DDance Gyarados would be a better option. Why? Because by traping things like opposing Politoeds, Ferrothorn and most walls that can't phaze (like the pink blobs) you can set a couple of Dragon Dance and sometimes a Substitute and go for the sweep. You could even run a Lum Berry instead of Lefties to avoid statuses on the switch.
Another thing is swaping Cloyster for CM Latias, mainly because your team lacks special attacking pokemon. And just like Gyarados, Latias can abuse the trapped pokemon to setup and sweep; also, Latias is a good check for sun teams too, something you say can give you some problems. The last move slot depends of what you want to counter the most: HP Fire is nice against sun teams, while Psyshock wins CM wars (meaning you will always win against Keldeo) and either Refresh and Substitute is to deal with status.
Last thing I wanted to point out is that your team could abuse of a Amoongus+Slowbro defensive core, but for this you would have to give up Tentacruel, which is your spinner. This is up to see if is worth.

You have a cool team here, John34645. I have only a few simple fixes I think would help.

So, first, you seem to be using Whirlpool on your current Politoed set. While this does seem unique, I would recommend using something like Scald or Hydro Pump over it. Though your idea seems cool, you kind of neglected the fact that once Politoed has been withdrawn, Whirlpool's trap ends. This means that, aganist the likes of Tentacruel, MagicBounce ability Pokemon(Espeon or Xatu) can come in and bounce them back.

This brings me to my next suggestion. Toxic on Tentacruel complaments Amoongus' set better. I suggest Tentacruel use Toxic over Toxic Spikes for a plathora of reasons:

It can't be absorbed and made useless(barr they come in on the switch) if the opposing team is carrying a Poison type Pokemon.

Toxic helps not Poison anything not needed: ex. It's better to paralyse bulky Reuniclus or Alakazam with Amoongus' Stun Spore than to give it a free status that doesn't hurt, but benefit, it.

Toxic can increase damage each turn. You need to make the effort and find the time to set up x2 Toxic Spike layers to do this; in which time, it could be absorbed or removed from the field.

Yes, I can keep going with the list, but I think you've got the point... Lol.

My next suggestion may be better be to your liking. I've recently found it to be useful to my team, so maybe it can help your's as well. Thundurus-T seems like it would fit in over Gyarados. You seem to have an enormous Electric weakness; as stated in your RMT. Thundurus-T relieves you of this worrisome threat, as it can be used to come in on various attacks aimed as your team with impunity and set up to sweep. Thus, the LO Agility set is ultimately the best to be used in this situation over, maybe, Gyarados. Some would suggest using Thunder, whereas I suggest using Thunderbolt due to the popular weather wars being so abundant. At least with Thunderbolt, your accurracy is not being crippled due to a change of weather.

Last, I'd suggest a Calm nature be used on Amoongus to sponge attacks better. You already have Tentacruel as a physical wall, so why not use Amoongus as you special wall? This also helps it endure Psychic and Ice type moves better. A spread of 252 Hp/ 228 Sp.Def/ 28 Sp.Attk would better suit your Amoongus.

So, here are the suggested sets!Politoed

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Thanks Guys ive takein in your suggestions and am deffinatly considering getting a special sweeper ie maby thunderus-t or some other electric pokemon to help me deal with opposing gyaridos however i dont think i want to get rid of gyaridos quite yet as stated in the RMT he is essential to late game sweepin. i may swap out cloyster for either a mixed attacker or sp atker im just not certain.@ ced Omega thanks for the hinter about whirlpool will change

So it seems as if you have other weather teams handled quite well with Dugtrio who can trap Tyranitar and Ninetales, but you might have some trouble beating Hippowdon Sand. This is partially due to the fact that your team can really only win with Rain up since Gyara is walled by most sand walls and Cloyster will be worn down quickly. Another thing your team might have trouble handling are faster sweepers such as choice Scarf Latios, Landorus-I, or Thundurus-T. All have powerful attacks that can hit a majority of your team neutrally if not super effectively, and can outspeed and eliminate your revenge killer, Gyarados. I think the root of your problems lie in your defensive core, Tenta / Amoonguss. The two are completely demolished by Psychic types like Alakazam / Lati@s, who are commonly found on Sand teams. They are also weak to Ground, which is also common in Sand, as well as Bolt/Beam, which is quite common too.

Since your team has trouble handling Dragon types and faster sweepers, I suggest you try Standard Ferrothorn over Amoonguss. Ferrothorn is a great wall that can set hazards for you as well as sponge dragon type hits. It can also wall opposing Rain / Sand sweepers and form a defensive core with Tentacruel. It also doesn't have the Psychic weakness that Amoongus had, and it has a much better typing that can tank boltbeam and rock type moves, both of which are major threats to your team.

Now, it also seems as if you're going to have a big problem getting past certain physical walls like Ferrothorn, Skarmory, or Tentacruel. Cloyster is redundant coverage in my opinion, as its Ice type coverage only hits Dragon types. I really like CedOmega's idea of Thundurus-T over Cloyster. However, instead of Agility, I suggest you use Nasty Plot instead of Agility to help break past defensive cores. I'd also suggest you use Expert Belt over LO, so you can feign a choice item.

Now, for some minor changes. Your Politoed set is pretty cool so I'll leave it to you to judge its effectiveness. However, I don't really see the point of Protect on Dugtrio. I understand you use it to stall down Perish Song turns, but that's extremely situational and I really doubt you will be able to make it happen enough for Protect to be worth the slot. To help you defeat Thundurus-T / Tornadus-I / Bug / Fire types, I suggest you try Stone Edge over protect. Stone Edge hits flying types like Dragonite / Mence, as well as Volcarona. I'd also use a Jolly nature on both Dugtrio and Gyarados, as max speed is necessary to be able to cover the most amount of threats.